Jayme Closs, the Wisconsin girl whose parents were fatally shot before she was kidnapped and held captive for 88 days by an abductor from whom she escaped, marked the first anniversary of her abduction on Monday.
The 14-year-old said she was feeling stronger every day and was thankful for the kindness and concern expressed by people all over the US.
Jayme issued a statement a day before the first anniversary of the shootings and abduction at her home near Barron in north-west Wisconsin. She is getting back to the activities she enjoys, she said, and loves hanging out with her friends.
The statement was read by family attorney Chris Gramstrup at a news conference at the Barron county sheriff’s department.
“She continues to work very, very hard on her emotional well-being,” Gramstrup said. “She’s moving forward courageously and reclaiming her life. Her incredible spirit and strength continues to inspire everyone around her.”
Grampstrup said Jayme inherited her strength and soft heart from her father and mother, James and Denise Closs, who were killed at their home on 15 October 2018 by Jake Patterson.
According to the criminal complaint, Patterson, then 21, told investigators he knew Jayme “was the girl he was going to take” after he saw her getting on a school bus near her home. He made two aborted trips to the family’s home before carrying out the attack in which he killed Jayme’s mother in front of her, the complaint said.
In the days that followed, thousands of people volunteered to search for Jayme. Patterson hid her in a remote cabin in Gordon, about 60 miles north of Barron, before she escaped and got help from a woman walking her dog.
Jayme told police that on the night she was abducted, she awoke to her dog’s barking, then woke her parents as a car came up the driveway. Her father went to the front door as Jayme and her mother hid in a bathtub, according to the complaint. Jayme told police she heard a gunshot and knew her dad had been killed.
Patterson – dressed in black and wearing a facemask – broke down the bathroom door, according to the complaint. He taped Jayme’s mouth, hands and ankles before pulling her out of the bathtub and shooting her mother in the head, the complaint said. He dragged Jayme outside, threw her in the trunk of his car and drove off.
When Patterson left the cabin or had friends over, he sealed Jayme under the bed with tote boxes and weights so she couldn’t crawl out, sometimes for hours, according to the complaint. When his father visited, Patterson told investigators, he turned up the radio to conceal any noise she might make.
She escaped on 10 January, when Patterson was away. He is serving life in prison with no chance of parole.